Internalities
by 873.25
Summary: Trapped into going to one of those stupid "gather all detectives to solve an old mystery in a creepy mansion" things with Hakuba, Kaito was planning to lay low. But of course, Conan not only shows up but gets amnesia. With the mystery looking more personal by the minute, and with no one there but Kaito knowing Conan's true identity, Kaito finds his hands uncomfortably full.
1. Nice to meet you

Internalities

Trapped into going to one of those stupid "gather all detectives to solve an old mystery in a creepy mansion" things with Hakuba, Kaito was planning to lay low. But of course, Conan not only shows up but gets amnesia. With the mystery looking more personal by the minute, and with no one there but Kaito knowing Conan's true identity, Kaito finds his hands uncomfortably full.

Note: this ch has been revised to clarify that Kaito and Conan do not actually hate each other. Sorry for the confusion.

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Ch. 1 Nice to meet you

"Hakuba… _please_." Kaito groaned for the billionth time that day, almost in tears at this point. "You can't seriously be this evil. You can't make me go to this. These things are _dangerous_ I'm telling you."

The other teen, however, was completely unmoved by the distress of his classmate. "Kuroba-kun, are you going to go back on your word on spending the weekend with me then? I thought you promised to do so to clear your name of being KID, once and for all."

Kaito scowled at that, because it was true he had agreed to spend a weekend with his classmate detective during any weekend of Hakuba's choice, so long as it overlapped with a KID heist. The weekend chosen would be unannounced until the day of, so Kaito would not have a chance to back out of it, and would not be able to back out of the heist if he were really KID like Hakuba was so adamant on believing.

Granted, Hakuba was _right_ , but Kaito wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of knowing. Kaito _was_ the great Kaitou KID after all, and he wasn't about to let any sudden absence of himself stop any of his heists. It wasn't as if Jii was too shabby with magic, being the assistant of the legendary Toichi Kuroba, and Hakuba didn't know that Kaito's mother was a skilled phantom thief as well. Not to mention, she was a phantom thief that owed him a _big favor_ for that Ryoma treasures exhibition fiasco.

However, he hadn't expected it to fall on a three day weekend, and not to mention, a weekend where Hakuba had been invited to go to one of those stupid "gather all detectives to solve some grand old mystery in a creepy mansion" things.

"Hakuba, you of all people should _know_." Kaito continued his whining, "People _die_ at those things. Seriously, I'll spend the weekend with you but could we please not go to this event?"

"Kuroba-kun." Hakuba cut him off coolly, with an equally icy smile. "Please, you are making Baaya wait. Surely you wouldn't be so rude to a lady."

Clenching and unclenching his hands, Kaito sighed for one last time before gathering his things and stuffing them into Hakuba's fancy car. Staying with one sharp detective for one weekend was one thing, staying in a suspicious mansion with who knows how many more detectives was another. He had tried that once disguised as Detective Mouri, and he had barely escaped. It was fun while it lasted, but he _never_ wanted to do that again.

However, this time he would not be disguised as anyone else. Kaito wasn't sure if he liked that very much, but at the very least _this time_ he would not be doing anything out of the ordinary. Kaito would lay low, and not do anything that deviated even _remotely_ from the law. He would sit around and pretend to be the not so bright friend that had reluctantly tagged along with the genius high school detective. Kaito mentally crossed his fingers and hoped against hope that Lady Luck would smile upon him at this time of dire need and make sure that neither the Osaka detective nor the pipsqueak detective showed up to this thing.

 _Especially the pipsqueak_. He thought. At least Hakuba could distract Heiji Hattori and hog all of his attention. They seemed to have a special sort of hate for each other after all.

Unfortunately for Kaito though, the pipsqueak seemed to have a special sort of hate for _him_ , and Kaito had to admit, the feeling was mutual. The terrible thing about this though, was that unlike Hattori, who seemed keen on avoiding his objects of hate like a normal human being, pipsqueak seemed keen on seeking out and destroying them.

Well, they didn't actually _hate_ each other, but they were a healthy thorn in each other's sides. It was a friendly sort of hate; the fun kind that exists between close friends or siblings. However, amicable hate or not, that didn't mean Conan didn't have the potential to be KID's downfall.

Now that he thought about it, Hakuba seemed like a pretty nice guy in comparison. At the very least, he had never had to doubt his classmate's sanity.

Kaito figured he could never be too careful though. Besides, although Kaito himself was not well known, his unique surname may not go unnoticed by a bunch of detectives. KID or not, he did not want them coming down on him like a bunch of vultures the moment they found out he may be a magician like his father. That much, he trusted Hakuba would understand. "Hakuba, at least give me this." Kaito sighed, getting in the back of the car behind his classmate. "I don't need a bunch of detectives breathing down my neck and trying to deduce every one of my magic tricks, so let me go as Kaito Kuroda for this weekend."

"I can heed to that request." Hakuba answered without hesitation. It's not as if the teen planned to trap Kuroba this weekend into revealing what he suspected to be his criminal identity. He was just going to keep him in a place where there was no way the magician could escape and make it to the planned KID heist. If the heist turned out to be horribly botched or canceled, that would be one more hint towards his 'Kuroba being KID' theory, and if Kuroba tried to escape the isolated mansion without being noticed, he would have a close to impossible time doing so. Hakuba knew the other minds gathered there were just as sharp as his, and Kuroba would have the disadvantage of having had arrived as himself this time, and not as someone else.

Kaito brooded in the backseat of his classmate's car, not bothering to make small talk with the other two people in the car sitting in the front. That was fine with both of them though. Hakuba had never been a talkative person anyway, and Kaito was not really talkative with Hakuba so the silence was not uncomfortable. Instead, the magician watched the scenery outside the car flash by as they went further and further into the mountains. He really didn't get why Hakuba and a bunch of detectives had decided to take this stupid invitation from Jirokichi Suzuki anyway. Apparently the crazy old man had found a mansion that was rumored to house a large jewel, and had hired a bunch of detectives to try and find it so he could use the jewel as bait to lure KID out. However, Kaito knew that rumored mansion held no jewel, mainly because he had seen the information about the house in one of his father's old files. Apparently it was true that sometime in the past, the house _had_ held a jewel, but it was now long gone.

Kaito assumed that the gathered detectives were probably there more in the hopes of catching KID than some stupid jewel that may or may not exist. If Kaito hadn't known the mansion held no jewel anymore, he might have voluntarily shown up to swipe the jewel before them. Although _Kaito_ had been involuntarily roped into to going to this event, KID would be no show, and there would be no jewel.

Finally pulling up at some creepy, western style mansion, Kaito hopped out of the car once it stopped as Hakuba gracefully stepped off. Both boys thanked the old lady for the ride, and promptly took out their luggage. After they saw off the old lady driving away, they both turned to go into the building, still not striking up conversation. Kaito duly noted the familiar looking gaudy cars lining the parking space in front of the mansion. Just as he was hoping to god that the one unfamiliar one wasn't a rental car that Detective Mouri had come in, his hopes were immediately shattered as a large crash from inside the building pierced the silence along with a high pitched yell.

Kaito paled, wishing that high pitched yell was not who he thought it was, for more reasons than one. Giving each other a look, both Hakuba and Kaito bolted towards the building to see what had happened.

000

There was something wrong.

There was something seriously wrong.

It was dark. Where was he? Oh his eyes are closed no wonder it was dark. Were those voices? Who's voice is that? Shinichi groggily thought as he cracked open his eyes. He blearily noted that he was in a dimly lit room, and there were two figures by the bed he was lying in. One was old man Kogoro, who seemed to be chatting quietly with some woman Shinichi didn't know. _Eh, Ran would love this._ Shinichi thought sarcastically as he imagined the reaction his childhood friend would have from knowing her father was flirting with other women again.

The unfamiliar woman seemed to immediately notice Shinichi had woken up, and peered over at him. "Thank goodness you're awake." She said, smiling with relief. Shinichi noted the lady was dressed strangely. She had on a white lab coat and smelled of chemicals. _Not a medical doctor_. Shinichi thought absentmindedly, his mind automatically starting to dissect her person. _Veterinarian? No, considering those chemicals I smell… forensics expert?_

Shinichi tried to speak, before being met with a sharp pain at the front part of his head. "Ugh" he groaned, accidentally flinching instead of speaking like he meant to. Had he hit his head? Was that why he was confined in his bed surrounded by… wait… come to think of it, why was old man Kogoro, of all people watching over him?

"What happened? Where am I?" Shinichi managed to groan out, and then coughed a little. _And what the hell is wrong with my voice?_ "Why are you here with me, old man? And who are you, lady?"

Kogoro gave him a mildly annoyed look, but it was clearly mixed in with a bit of relief seeing as Conan seemed to have come to, sass and all. "I was invited to this mansion to solve the mystery of the hidden treasure within it, and I had to bring you here with me because Ran had plans to spend the weekend with Sonoko."

Shinichi frowned at the strange explanation. _What the hell?_

"And you, being the brat you usually are, ran amok as soon as we got here and got some large vase falling on your head, knocking you out." Kogoro continued, misunderstanding the confused look Conan was giving him as confusion about how the boy had landed in this bed, unconscious. "You should really thank Ikumi-san here since she was the one that tended to your head injury after all."

"I think we've met before, but it was only once after all." The lady, who had been introduced as Ikumi, spoke up as she smiled at Conan. "I remember you very clearly though, Conan Edogawa. It was brilliant how you came up with that plan to lure out the murderer at that Karasuma mansion."

Shinichi managed to smile weakly, about to correct her that she must have mistaken him for someone else, because he sure as hell didn't know anyone with a funky name like Conan Edogawa, didn't know anything about a Karasuma mansion, nor had he ever met this woman, when his razor sharp brain stacked up the details that had been taken in during the short time he had been awake, and alerted him to shut his mouth because something was terribly, terribly _wrong_.

The room was way too large. His throat didn't hurt, but his voice had been way too high pitched. Kogoro was treating him like he needed supervision. He had been called by a different name. Shinichi tried not to shake as he tried to pull himself up to get to a sitting position, only to stumble back down as he lost his balance. Ignoring the worried looks his awkward movement got from the other two adults in the room, Shinichi pulled himself up again, being successful this time.

He took in a deep breath and closed his eyes as he scooted back to lean against the headboard.

Still trying to stay calm, he slowly opened his eyes again to examine his hands.

 _Tiny_. _Child's hands. Early primary school?_ His mind automatically outputted as he looked at them. He wiggled his fingers to make sure these impossibly small hands were really his. Unable to stop the trembling that was creeping up into them, Shinichi put his now tiny hands onto his thighs, grasping the bedcovers. He then proceeded to wiggle his toes, noting how far away from him the movement the toes made happened. _Short legs. My height is somewhere between 110 to 120 cm._ Shinichi knew that estimation range was huge considering the ratio, but he was still sitting down so it couldn't be helped. He noted with satisfaction that the estimated height range was consistent with the average height of the age range analysis he had immediately made by looking at his hands.

 _I've turned small or younger?_ Shinichi tried to bite down the fear that was building up within him. Panic didn't help. Panic never helped. _Stay calm. THINK._ Kogoro and the lady were treating him like a child. So _younger._ What had Kogoro said about Ran and Sonoko? They were going somewhere by themselves for an entire weekend, and old man Kogoro didn't look any younger from the last time Shinichi remembered him, so it seemed everyone else was still the same age.

The other lady had called Shinichi 'Conan', and Kogoro hadn't batted an eye at what Shinichi had thought was a mistake. _So I really am 'Conan'?_ Which meant Shinichi really should know this woman, and really should know about this Karasuma mansion murder case.

Something was missing. Actually, a lot of things were missing. What had happened? The most likely culprit… time?

"O… old man Kogoro, or, Ikumi-san." Shinichi spoke again, trying to get used to his young voice. "What day is it?"

Kaito nonchalantly observed the ceiling as he lay down on the bed in the room that had been prepared for him. When he and Hakuba had arrived at the mansion, they had apparently come just in time to witness the aftermath of the one and only Conan Edogawa being attacked and knocked out by a falling vase. Granted, it seemed the head injury was minor, and the forensics lady detective knew how to treat it, so she and Detective Mouri had quickly taken away the little boy to some room to lay him down.

Meanwhile, deciding Kaito didn't want to spend that much time with detectives who were probably filing away every little bit of information they were exposed to by the second, he had turned in to his bedroom to leave the others to their devices. Kaito wasn't here to solve the mystery after all, so he figured he would sit still until he made sure Tantei-kun was really okay.

The other detectives that had turned up were the same ones from the Karasuma mansion case, sans the one that had died, Ogami, and the one that had killed him, Senma. Although the numbers gathered were smaller, and the risk of the mystery less deadly this time, he knew the car loving Mogi, the sciency lady Ikumi, his classmate Hakuba, and the mini Kudo were nothing to sneeze at. There was Mouri too, who, although admittedly not as sharp as the others, was smarter than he acted.

Kaito didn't like not being on the offensive, hiding away in his room like a coward, but he had a terrible feeling about this mansion mystery case. Although he was no Akako, Kaito knew when his intuition was saying _bad_ , something _bad_ was about to happen. He sighed, "Are you awake yet?" he muttered to himself, addressing the little boy he knew wouldn't be able to hear him. At the very least, he hoped the bad feeling wasn't connected to the detective with the worst luck Kaito ever knew. The boy had hit a worrying part of his head after all.

As if his prayers had been answered, Kaito heard a sharp rapping on his door. Considering there was only one person familiar enough with him to not knock politely, Kaito didn't bother to get up out of his bed when he shouted a response. "What do you want Hakuba?"

The door opened, revealing his unamused classmate. "Get up, Kaito. Conan-kun has awoken." Hakuba then paused, before giving him a knowing grin. "Come to think of it, you've never met him before have you? The famed KID killer, Conan Edogawa."

"No." Kaito responded, "And KID killer or not, like you, this boy has also never caught the great KID, and never will."

Hakuba raised an eyebrow at the snarky comment before smiling again. "We shall see about that." He then gestured to the boy to get up from the bed. "Now come, let us get you two introduced. I am sure he would be pleased to meet you."

"What do you mean by that? What would a little kid find interesting about meeting a random teenager like me?" Kaito grumbled, pretending to be reluctant as he rolled out of the bed and trudged over to the door to follow Hakuba.

"I'm sure he'll find you interesting." Hakuba replied, starting to walk as he led his classmate over to the living room where the others had gathered. "He is the famed KID killer, after all."

Kaito rolled his eyes, refusing to take the provocation and denying for the billionth time that he was not, in fact, KID. Although it was true pipsqueak might find him suspect of being KID, considering his face and all, Kaito was not going to give him any _proof_. One thing about being a great detective was that they were smart enough to know that they couldn't stick you out to the authorities without solid proof.

"Hey, let me go to the restroom first. I'll catch up to you soon." Kaito said suddenly, before leaving an exasperated Hakuba. If Kaito was going to enter a room as himself with Tantei-kun watching, he wanted to enter the room unnoticed, so as to have the moment to observe the detective before the inevitable mutual meeting.

Shinichi stood quietly in the living room, trying to keep his calm while he continued gathering as much information as he could about his predicament. What he had gleaned so far about his current situation was that Shinichi had lost quite a bit of time. He had lost several _months_ worth of time, and obviously during that time period something insane had happened, and Shinichi, for the life of him, was still having a hard time figuring it all out.

Right now he was, incredible as it was, 7 years old. Shinichi now went by the name, Conan Edogawa, and went to Teitan Elementary. He was currently living with Kogoro and Ran for some odd reason he didn't know yet, and Kogoro didn't know 'Conan' was really Shinichi. _Do I exist in this world?_ Shinichi thought fleetingly, before shaking his head. Although he had to swallow the impossible situation that Shinichi had become young, or had become trapped in a young boy's body, he still didn't want to think of that terrifying possibility yet.

 _If I really am me, then 'Conan Edogawa' is a fake name._ Shinichi continued thinking, _'Conan Edogawa'… that is kind of fitting if I was the one that came up with the name._

He was jolted out of his thoughts, however, as Kogoro gently tapped him on the shoulder. The man would have slapped the boy on the head, but Conan was sporting an injury there today so he would be nice. "Hey, everyone's here now. Let's get introduced now since you might not remember them all."

Shinichi watched as he saw a teenager walk into the room, joining the other people that were already in the living room with him. _17 to 19 years old._ Shinichi thought upon seeing the new occupant of the room. _Half-Japanese, Half-….European?_ Considering the way the boy held himself, and the manner of dress, this was no American. _Teenage detective? I don't know him… but he is here with the famous Mogi, and this Ikumi, who are obviously both very sharp._ _Perhaps this teenager's jurisdiction is elsewhere…_

"Introduced?" Hakuba spoke, quirking an eyebrow as he observed the other occupants of the room. "Mouri-san, I believe we have all met before." He then looked behind him to see if his classmate had joined him yet. Pretending not to be surprised that the sneaky teen had, in fact, already entered the room unnoticed, Hakuba gestured towards Kaito. "Well, save for my companion here."

Shinichi's eyes widened, and his world stood still for a long moment as he locked eyes with the teen the foreign looking teenager had referred to. Ironically, among this gaggle of people, the one person who Shinichi or 'Conan' had supposedly never met, was the only familiar looking one.

The teen in question had locked eyes with him and had given him a warm smile reserved for little children, but Shinichi barely noticed the friendly gesture.

"You're… are you…?" Shinichi's grip on his sanity suddenly started feeling very fragile as he failed to voice out what he really wanted to say. _Me?_ He was afraid to know, but Shinichi _had_ to know. He had to know if Shinichi was not who he believed himself to be anymore, and that someone else was now him. "Shinichi Kudo?"

At the declaration, the expression of the teen with his face froze, and then darkened immediately with worry before slipping back into a more neutral one. Shinichi felt those sharp eyes, so similar to his own, silently searching his face. The accused look-alike didn't answer. Shinichi couldn't tell if the other boy was too shocked for words or was waiting for 'Conan' to say more.

Little did Shinichi know, he was right. Kaito was both too shocked for words and was waiting for 'Conan' to speak again, hoping against hope that this was some sort of bad joke or a poorly sprung trap.

TBC


	2. Nice to meet you too

Disclaimer: I don't know how long it's supposed to have been since Shinichi has turned into Conan… If we go by actual years it's been like 20, and since I can't actually do that, please overlook this detail. Thanks.

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Ch. 2 Nice to meet you too

 _Hey…what's wrong with you?_ Kaito thought frantically, noting from the expression on Conan's face that this kid was not joking.

Hearing little Conan's declaration, the other people in the room, sans Hakuba, rounded on Kaito.

"You?" Ikumi said, surprised. "You're that famous detective boy? And here I thought the rumors that you had died were true."

Mogi scoffed in amusement as he looked between Conan and the supposed Shinichi Kudo. "Hey seems to me like he's actually the only one this kiddo knows at the moment." Mogi then glanced over at Kogoro. "Considering he doesn't remember us" He gestured to himself, Ikumi, and Hakuba, " this kiddo's lost his recent memories from that bump to his head earlier didn't he? And don't tell me these two" he pointed his thumb over at the Shinichi look-alike and Conan "aren't related. They look exactly alike."

Kogoro frowned, looking at Kaito, who still hadn't said anything to respond to the other detectives. The teen was still looking at Conan, silent. "Well Conan _is_ supposed to be a distant relative of the Kudo brat, but" he scowled deeper as he noticed Kaito still wasn't paying him any heed, "hey! Say something already!" Kogoro shouted, startling Kaito into finally giving him his attention "You're not the detective boy are you? You look like him, but you seem different."

"Ah, as expected from the great Detective Mouri." Hakuba responded, seeing as his companion had chosen to stay speechless for some odd reason. "He is not a detective. He is my classmate, Kaito Kuroda."

"Kuroda?" Kogoro looked surprised for a moment, but deciding he didn't care too much, let it go. "Well, anyway, as I thought, not that detective boy."

Shinichi breathed a little easier, relieved to have figured out two important things: 1. That he, Shinichi Kudo, had existed, and that 2., this doppelganger had not replaced him. Now he just had to figure out, who the hell was Conan Edogawa? Was Conan him, Shinichi, turned young living under this alias, or was he possessing someone else entirely? From what Shinichi knew, he knew of no distant relatives Conan's age.

Kaito finally spoke, tearing his eyes away from the little boy and addressing Mogi. "Sir, what you said about this boy having lost some of his memory, is this true?"

Mogi shrugged, "Well the boy seemed to be functioning fine after the bump to his head, and seemed to recognize his guardian fine so we hadn't checked, but" he glanced around the room, "considering this boy's excellent memory and attention to detail, his lack of memory of all of us save for Detective Mouri and, although it seemed to have been a case of mistaken identity, his distant relative, I think we can assume this boy's lost a few months."

"I see." Kaito replied, looking nervously over at the little detective. _A few months? Probably more like a year!_ "Thank you." He gulped, feeling bad as he saw how confused and downright _scared_ Conan looked, despite how hard the boy was trying not to let the fear show. It almost looked as if… he didn't trust himself yet.

Perhaps Conan had sensed a bit of his inner turmoil and suspected that Kaito knew more about the mini detective than he let on, because the boy himself walked over to the teen to tap on his leg. "Do you know me nii-chan?"

Kaito blinked, heart hammering as he answered carefully, knowing Hakuba was watching them interact like a hawk. "I don't know Conan Edogawa."

"How do you know my name then?" Shinichi was pretty sure he hadn't introduced himself to this strange Kaito Kuroda character yet, who supposedly didn't know him.

In response, Kaito frowned. This was going as badly as he feared. Considering the pipsqueak had asked Kaito if he was Shinichi himself, and was now showing ignorance of ever being featured in the papers as Conan, this pointed to his memory loss being to a point _before_ the Black Star heist.

"You're in the papers sometimes." Crap crap _crap_. Kaito thought, as the full extent of how bad things could be started to dawn on him. Did mini Kudo at least remember becoming Conan? If not, things looked bad, as Conan would suddenly become a way shadier character just by virtue of having already recognized Kogoro.

"Do you know…Shinichi Kudo?" Kaito peered down at Conan, as the boy spouted another unsettling question that pointed to him being unsure of his own identity. Kaito sighed deeply, cursing his conscience. With the boy's confusion and his questions, it was becoming increasingly likely that Conan did not know how he had become Conan.

Even though the detective was his arch nemesis, Kaito knew he couldn't leave the boy like this. Ironically, even though Kaito was the only one who hadn't 'met' Conan before, he was the only one who could help the little detective keep his real identity hidden in this mess.

However, helping Conan out here was a gamble, and would require a precarious balance between Kaito's own secret versus Conan's. Kaito wasn't really sure he would be able to manage not tipping it one way or another. Either way, every word uttered to him would be important. He didn't want to see Tantei-kun losing it after all.

Kaito crouched down to make sure he would be eye level with the real Shinichi. Speaking in a low enough voice so as not to be overheard, he replied gently "I don't know the teenage Shinichi Kudo." Kaito saw Conan's eyes widen a little at the carefully worded response. _Did he get the hint?_ The teen wasn't really sure if he wanted him to or not. He was tightening the noose around his own neck for this after all.

However, seeing no encouraging response, Kaito then put a warm hand on Conan's shoulder, making the boy jolt in surprise. "Hey kiddo, I know you're confused and scared and all with your memory loss, but it'll be okay." He gave the boy a warm smile. "You're okay."

Kaito gave the small shoulder a light squeeze before uttering the next line, which was teetering on damning once Conan got his memories back. "You are who you think you are, _and_ you are also who everyone else says you are." He paused, "You're a detective right? Believe in what you _know_." Deciding he had risked his neck enough to last a decade, Kaito stood up to face the rest of the crowd.

"Sorry for my late introduction." Kaito announced, "As Hakuba and Detective Mouri already pointed out, I am not Shinichi Kudo, nor am I a detective. I was just as surprised by the little kid's declaration as you all were." He shrugged, looking deflated. "I'm just here tagging along with Hakuba, since we are partners for a school project due this upcoming Tuesday and this is the only time we can work together."

"Ah school." Ikumi responded, smiling, "It's nice to be young isn't it?"

"Bah, no need to do that schoolwork." Mogi added on, scoffing. "There are more important things out there to be done after all, like solving the mystery of this mansion."

"Don't say that. School is important." Ikumi reprimanded, giving Mogi a disapproving look. "However, you are right that this mansion mystery needs some solving."

"What?" Kogoro said, incredulous "I thought the only mystery this mansion held was whether or not it still held some jewel?"

"Surely you must be joking, Detective Mouri." Hakuba laughed, shaking his head. "Although neither you nor Jirokichi Suzuki seemed to have noticed, this mansion holds a much larger mystery than the alleged existence of a jewel."

Hearing those unexpected declarations from the three detectives, Kaito stopped himself from trying to be excused from the room again. "What other mystery?"

Ignoring the amused look Hakuba was giving him, Kaito pressed on, "I thought you were all here to look for some jewel?"

"Bah, as if!" Mogi replied, laughing as well "Nothing that insignificant would be reason to get me to come. This mansion" he paused, looking around the room in a sinister manner, almost as if expecting the walls to be listening "has other rumors. Rumors that some people _disappear_ after they enter here."

"Wait…." Kaito scowled, hoping against hope _again_ that this was a bad joke. "you mean like some psycho murderer shows up and kills people that enter here?"

"No." Hakuba responded, "From what I have uncovered, it doesn't happen to everyone, but for some odd reason some people disappear after entering here and are never found." He continued, after making sure he had his classmate's full attention. "All traces of them having entered here disappear, and the 'victims' are seemingly random."

"There has to be an explanation for it." Ikumi added on. "And Suzuki-san has presented us detectives with a chance to explore this mysterious mansion for a jewel search. In the meantime, we will put an end to this people disappearing mystery once and for all."

Kaito found himself about to sneak a look over at Conan before he stopped himself. Usually, he could trust the little kid to slip out an expression or something to help Kaito confirm the validity of such a ridiculous claim, but Conan didn't remember why he was here anymore.

Instead, trying to remember what he had seen in his father's notes about the mansion, Kaito racked his memory. It wasn't that hard, considering there wasn't much in the notes. All it pretty much said was that there used to be a jewel housed here, but not anymore. There was nothing in the notes to peak Kaito's interest, so the boy had dismissed the place, assuming the mansion was not worth looking into. However, hearing this new supposed mystery surrounding this mansion was making Kaito second-guess his initial dismissal. If there were such a weird rumor surrounding this place, there was no way his father wouldn't have mentioned it.

Come to think of it, with this new information, it was altogether _unnatural_ how little details there were regarding this place in his father's usually detailed notes.

It was almost as if his father had wanted the reader to think that this place was not worth checking out. Kaito shuddered. He was smelling a mystery all right, and a potentially dangerous one at that. _Ugh._ Kaito groaned inwardly at this new realization. However, if his late father had been involved, now that he was here Kaito had to figure out what was going on.

He believed in the detectives here, including the slightly battered but still functioning Kudo, to be able to figure out pretty much any mystery thrown at them. However, Kaito didn't _trust_ any of them to not keep him in the dark after figuring out the mystery, deeming it too dangerous to know like his late father seemed to have decided.

Even though the house was full of detectives he had to compete against, Kaito decided he would figure out this people disappearing mystery before any of them. There was just one big problem. He glanced over at Conan again, and jolted as he saw the little boy staring intently at him, eyes full of suspicion.

Although Shinichi had been just as surprised by his lookalike at the revelation of the people disappearing act this mansion they were in was rumored to pull, Shinichi first had to make sure what was up with this teenager he was _supposed to not know._

This guy, although he had not said it outright, sounded like he was hinting that he knew something about Shinichi's strange situation. Frustrated, he tugged at the hem of Kaito's shirt as soon as he locked eyes with the teen. "Hey Kaito-niichan. Can I talk to you alone?"

"Why?" Kaito responded, startled and a little scared. Although he had a bit of an idea, it would be too weird to the others if this unrelated kid decided he needed to speak in private with a teenager he had just met. This would be too suspicious and dangerous for _both_ of their secret covers.

Shinichi paused, looking around conspiratorially before answering in a childish manner. "Well, you're not a detective right? Then we should stick together while the others work to solve the mystery!" he smirked, "But I want to try and figure it out before them, so please help me! "

"Ah" _So that's your plan_ "I see." Kaito responded, scared but a little relieved that the boy seemed to at least have gotten the hint that Conan had a secret identity to keep. "Well, you heard the squirt." Kaito said, looking up at the rest of the people in the room. "Please excuse us. We'll join you all for dinner."

Kogoro scoffed, waving them off "Scat! Good riddance." He scowled after the pair as they left the room, "As _if_ they would be able figure it out before us."

"I don't know about that, Detective Mouri." Ikumi said, chuckling. "Although Kuroda-kun was not the famed Shinichi Kudo, memory loss or not, Conan-kun has proven to be pretty sharp."

"Kuroda-kun can be a bit of a jokester, but he is no idiot either." Hakuba added on, to Kogoro's chagrin. "Who knows? Those two may really beat us in solving this mansion mystery."

000

Finally getting the suspicious 'Kaito' alone in a room with him, Shinichi turned to look at the other boy in the eyes. He had to at least make sure once and for all that Shinichi was still himself for the sake of his sanity. And if this strange character knew, he would get it out of him. "You know me don't you?"

The addressed teen looked back, giving the conversation a pregnant pause. "No. I don't know you, Conan-kun."

Shinichi sighed, frustrated and at the end of his wits, "Then do you know me, S- _mmph!_ " He struggled as Kaito suddenly covered his mouth with his hand before Shinichi could even utter the first syllable of his real name.

"No." Kaito said quickly, and then added on quietly after he let go of the other boy's mouth. "But everyone else here knows _Conan-kun_." _Goddammit Meitantei! Catch the hint already!_

Shinichi finally fell silent of his own accord, a small explanation starting to form in his head at this strange response, and it did not look pretty. _Well, at least it's starting to become something._ He thought sarcastically, eyeing the guy who was refusing to elaborate on what he obviously knew.

First of all, if he could trust the veiled hints this Kaito had been giving him, Shinichi was still himself. Additionally, considering the reactions of the other people in the living room, Shinichi the teenage detective had existed.

However, this new knowledge that he was still himself added a few more things to the long list of things that were bothering him. One of them was why Kogoro didn't know Conan was Shinichi, despite Conan was living under his care, and despite the Mouris being a close family friend.

Which meant for some odd reason, Shinichi was not able to reveal his identity. Considering what Ikumi had said earlier about having thought teen Shinichi had died, Shinichi had clearly been in hiding during the time that he had forgotten.

Shinichi narrowed his eyes, going deeper in thought, before glancing over at his look-alike who had opted to silently sit in the room without looking at him. Considering what this 'Kaito' had been hinting at him while revealing as little as possible about the boy himself, he was probably one of the few people that knew Conan's identity.

However, although this mysterious teen knew young Shinichi as he is now, the teen had supposedly never met 'Conan' or Shinichi as he was before he had turned young.

Although Kaito was proving to be no enemy of his so far, this teen clearly had secrets of his own that he was not willing to lay out to Shinichi. _He doesn't trust me._ Shinichi thought, _Is that because I am unstable now with my memory loss or because he never did?_

However, considering how it seemed as if Shinichi himself had decided to stay hidden sometime during the gap in his memory, Shinichi decided to trust his own past decision keep staying hidden. Since Shinichi didn't know what Conan's back-story was, he knew he was at risk of unwittingly blowing his own cover. For this reason, it seemed that for now Shinichi had little to no choice but to stick close to this supposed stranger to keep up Conan's cover. It was a good thing he had come up with that dumb excuse earlier of 'wanting to solve the house mystery before the other detectives', so that he would have an excuse to be sticking around Kaito.

Sighing in defeat, Shinichi finally looked over at Kaito to strike up conversation again. At the very least, he could start clearing up the minor details. "Hey Kaito-niichan, can you at least tell me why Jirokichi Suzuki would want a large jewel so much? Considering the other detectives seem to doubt this mansion even holds the jewel anymore, I don't see why that old man would care so much." Shinichi added on, "I might have known the reason before coming here, but it seems I've forgotten."

Kaito blinked, and then smiled. Well this was unexpected but somewhat comforting. It seemed Kudo was as tough as nails, being capable of making jokes about his situation even though his predicament was obviously insane and still uncomfortably very muddled. "Suzuki is obsessed with a phantom thief called Kaitou KID, and that thief always goes after large jewels. Apparently the old man hopes to find in this house his next bait to lure out the thief."

"…oh" Shinichi replied, feeling deflated by the stupid reason. An obsessed rich man with nothing better to do with his time and money than go after some petty thief? He hadn't heard much of this Kaitou KID; not that he cared much. Theft wasn't really his thing after all. Shinichi did remember going after a particularly clever one at the clock tower once and that had been fun, but he had never caught the guy's nickname. Maybe he would one day get around to asking Inspector Megure.

Shinichi suddenly felt a pang of worry about the thought of the Inspector. _Does Megure know about me?_ The level of danger Shinichi could gauge of his own current situation could be measured by whether or not he had bothered to notify the police about his shrunken state. Considering Shinichi was obviously in hiding, if he hadn't told Megure, a police officer he trusted wholeheartedly, things would have to be extremely bad. However, considering Kogoro didn't know…

Shinichi was suddenly punched by a nasty feeling - loneliness.

As if sensing his moment of vulnerability, the teen that was with him spoke again. "Hey, don't make that face. I'm sure you'll recover your memories soon enough. In the meantime, let's have fun solving that mystery the other detectives were talking about. By the way" Kaito paused, "that's what you were in the papers about. Kaitou KID I mean." He continued after he made sure the uncharacteristically sad look Tantei-kun had been sporting changed to one of curiousity. "You're known as the KID killer, because you've been the closest to catching the elusive thief."

"Oh… I see." Shinichi swallowed. Despite 'Conan' still being a foreign person to him, knowing that the shrunken him had been doing something familiar like chasing after criminals made him feel better. "Thank you, Kaito-niichan." He smiled, suddenly feeling as if a little bit of an unknown weight had been lifted from his now tiny shoulders. It was amazing how a little bit of information, and however secretive and shady he may be, a confidant, could do to the psyche.

"Come on, let's go to dinner now." Kaito responded, glad that Conan had smiled. "I'm sure they're waiting for us."

As the two walked down the hallway to join the others in the dining room at the appointed time, Kaito decided to ask Conan about the disappearing persons case surrounding this mansion, just in case the boy had heard about it before he had shrunken. Shinichi Kudo had been a renowned homicide detective at such a young age after all; you never knew how much information the guy retained.

Surprisingly, Conan only gave him an uninterested look, "I've heard about the case before from d- I mean" he coughed to cover up his mistake. "from Shinichi-niichan's dad. Apparently he's looked into it, but didn't find anything." Conan shrugged, "If he couldn't find anything, then there probably really is nothing to the disappearing persons rumor."

"Huh." Kaito responded, "Shinichi Kudo's father? Is he also a detective?"

"No." Conan replied, quirking his eyebrows in mild irritation. "He's a mystery writer, but he also helps out the police sometime with complicated crimes." He paused, before looking over at his companion, "Come to think of it, I heard he's given a phantom thief a hard time too. Maybe it's that Kaitou KID I'm supposed to be famous for chasing after."

"Oh." _Yup._ Kaito thought. _Shady. This mansion mystery is shady._ He then nervously stole a glance over at Conan, who had now looked away from him. _Especially if this genius's father is also in on covering up this mystery. I hope this secret isn't some sort of Pandora's box._

He then scoffed at the thought; ignoring the puzzled look Conan gave him. _No… the jewel that used to be here… it couldn't have been?_

Kaito stopped in his tracks, his blood suddenly turning cold at the thought. _Wait…a dangerous secret that needed to be covered up?_ "Conan-kun, do you know the name of the jewel that may or may not be hidden here?"

"No, but" Conan paused in his steps, looking at the other boy quizzically "Shinichi-niichan's dad mentioned it was supposed to be a jewel that cries and stops time or something. Crazy right?" he started laughing before he stopped himself, seeing the shocked look on Kaito's face. "Crazy…. right?" he repeated, before he noticed the shock on his companion's face was turning to one of horror. "Hey… what's wrong with you?"

TBC


	3. Trapped within a wrinkle in time

Memo: Thanks to the reviewers who let me know that Kaito's last name is 'Kuroba', not 'Kuroda', and sorry for the confusion. I know it was a short scene and easy to miss, but in chapter 1, Kaito requests Hakuba to let him go with a fake name since he did not want to go into a house full of detectives with a famous magician's last name.

Hope this tidbit didn't bother readers too much last chapter, and that this memo clears things up.

* * *

Ch. 3 Trapped within a wrinkle in time

Kaito blinked, before taking in a deep breath to smooth out his features. _Don't panic._ He thought to himself. _Stay calm. Mustn't… forget… poker face._ "Nothing." He lied, responding to little Shinichi's question.

"Don't lie to me." Shinichi replied, frowning. He found that the more he spoke with this teen the less he knew about him, and Shinichi was not in the mood for this right now. Besides, the guy had obviously been horrified about the ridiculous rumor surrounding the jewel that used to be here. "What's wrong with the jewel that cries and stops time? Don't tell me you believe in that cr-" Shinichi stopped himself. Did Conan curse? "Don't tell me you believe in that magic stuff."

"Of course not, Conan-kun." Kaito replied, shuddering. _Right, he would go this route._ "But _think_ about it! Disappearing people and a magic jewel that _cries and stops time_? This place really sounds like bad news!" he exclaimed. "Believe in the stuff or not, you can't blame me for getting a little spooked."

Shinichi narrowed his eyes, and Kaito couldn't help but inwardly jolt as he saw the challenging grin grace the little detective's face. Unwittingly, it seemed Kaito had provoked the formerly uninterested great detective of the East into actually taking this mystery up as a challenge. "Well." Shinichi scoffed, crossing his arms defiantly. "Didn't I say we would figure this out? Once we know, there will be nothing to be afraid of."

Kaito gave the boy a silent look, before quipping out a timid response. "Fine." _Yup. Battered or not, Conan or not, Kudo is tough as nails and insane. I guess that's why we get along in our own strange way._ "Can I trust you on that?"

Shinichi laughed in response. "You can always trust the truth, Kaito-niichan. There is only one after all."

The two finally entered the dining room after their little truce, and sat themselves down at the table.

"About time you two brats showed up." Kogoro grumbled, looking over from his seat to the two familiar faces. "Dinner time started 10 minutes ago."

"Sorry old man, Kaito-niichan and I were talking about the house mystery!" Shinichi piped up, easily picking up the little kid act. He figured if Kogoro and the others treated him like a little kid, Conan probably acted like one too.

"Oh, and did you two get far?" Ikumi asked, smiling at the child and the teenager that had been roped into partnering up with him. "I hope us pros haven't been beaten yet."

"No." Shinichi replied, looking put out. Perhaps he could get the other adults to spill some hints for them. Although Shinichi planned to work with the mystery teen to figure out the mystery of the mansion, they didn't have enough information. Kaito obviously hadn't known about the missing persons part of the mystery, and had known even less than Shinichi about the alleged jewel that may or may not be in this house. Shinichi, until he got his Conan memories back, didn't know if he had looked anything up about this place before coming here. "But I am scared about the missing persons mystery. What if the big jewel here is eating up the people?"

Mogi laughed, as Kogoro sighed exasperatedly, and Hakuba gave Kaito an accusatory look.

"Don't look at me!" Kaito muttered, looking back at Hakuba, "I don't believe the jewel eats people, but I admit I am spooked by the missing persons thing like Conan-kun here." He sighed, "Unlike all of you brilliant detectives, us normal people and children know something called fear when faced with a weird mystery like this."

Hakuba scoffed at the ridiculous notion. These two were obviously fishing for information. _Well, if that's how you're going to be then Kuroba-kun, welcome to the game._ He smiled. _Let's see how you fare against us detectives._

"Look, there is no such thing as _real_ magic, and thus there is no monster jewel eating people up." Mogi said, glancing over at Conan. "If there is anything that looks like either, it's either a magician doing some hand tricks, or a real human being causing people to disappear." He paused dramatically. "I hate to say this kid, but the world already has monsters without supernatural jewels entering into the picture."

"Besides," Ikumi added on, "the missing persons rumor started around 8 years ago, after a famous thief performed what was thought to be his last theft here and went missing without a trace. Well… until recently." She crossed her arms, looking contemplative. "I bet some criminals decided to use the rumor that this house made the thief disappear for stealing its treasure and kidnapped some people on the premises, trying to make the disappearances seem just as supernatural."

"Wait…" Kaito started, confused. "which thief is this?" _Disappeared 8 years ago but active now?_ He thought, quirking his eyebrows. That profile matched that of Kaitou KID, but from what he knew, his father's last heist wasn't this mansion. Hakuba gave him a strange look for the genuine confusion, but he ignored it. The detective was probably trying to figure out if he was acting or not anyway.

"Kaitou KID of course. For being friends with this detective boy, you sure don't know anything." Kogoro scoffed, pointing his thumb at Hakuba. "Disappeared for 8 years? Active now? Famous thief? Who else?"

"His last heist wasn't here," Mogi replied, crossing his arms, but then glanced over at Ikumi. "Or at least, his last publicized one wasn't. You used to work for the police didn't you?" he then also looked over at Kogoro as well, "And you too. So I assume there was one last one done here that us civilians weren't privy to knowing."

"Yes." Ikumi replied, "As you suspect, the last _publicized_ one wasn't here, but the last one known by the police was here. Although I was not in the force yet at the time of the heist, it was such a quiet end to such a big name that everyone was still talking about it when I joined a couple years after."

"I was in a different division at the time, but yea I also remember some colleagues of mine talking about it when I was in the force." Kogoro added on as well. "That stupid, flamboyant thief: last heist unpublicized in a wonky old mansion and then poof. _Gone_. Leaving no trace of having ever set foot in this mansion. And after that, no more heists."

Shinichi frowned. _Drats_. _If only I had my Conan memories back, I would know more about this mysterious thief!_ He glanced over at Kaito, who had just been listening to the chatter silently after his question. _And he just keeps proving to be more clueless than ever! Does he really know Conan's secret?_

Kaito couldn't help but look over at Hakuba with the unspoken question. _Is this true?_ As much as he hated to admit it, if anyone would have done their research, it would be him. "Did you know about this?"

"I did know, but I found that out by chance." Hakuba replied, expression neutral. If his classmate really was the current KID, it was curious to know that he was not aware of the former KID's last heist. This implied he was not directly handed over the legacy by the former one. "I mentioned to my father where I was going this weekend, and he told me about that rumor surrounding KID and this mansion." He paused, frowning. "Of course, I asked if there were any case files left about this, but he told me there was pretty much nothing in it." Hakuba sighed, "Apparently all of the people involved knew nothing, and even though there was one civilian witness the police thought might know something, apparently he died in an unrelated accident before the police could follow up with him on the case."

"Why didn't the police question him on the spot?" Shinichi asked, curiosity peaked about this mystery person.

"Well" Hakuba said, blinking as he looked at Conan strangely. "Coincidentally enough, apparently the man had gotten injured in the mansion and was a recovering amnesiac at the time the police had come in for questioning. So they decided to give him some time to recuperate before they went and followed up. This wasn't a high priority case after all, considering the police could find nothing that had happened in the mansion."

"Who was that person?" Kaito asked, trying to keep his voice steady and wracking his brain for some memory of his father before his death. _It was such a long time ago._

"He wouldn't tell me." Hakuba replied, looking disappointed. "Although deceased, it is a civilian identity after all."

Mogi whistled as he leaned back. "Ah, and the mystery gets deeper." He grinned and winked at Conan. "Don't wet your bed, kiddo."

Shinichi grimaced, and then huffed as he supposed a kid his age would do, and hopped off the chair. "I won't!" he glared at Mogi, and then tugged at Kaito's shirt. "Let's go Kaito-niichan! Let's go look for clues!"

"Hey I'd love to, but isn't it your bedtime?" Kaito asked, looking down at the mini detective. He did want the detective's help in looking into this mystery, but it was nearing 10 in the evening and he still had to treat this kid like a child. Not to mention, it was very worrying that this mystery was looking more personal by the minute.

"It's good to be eager, but you need sleep to recuperate." Ikumi added on. "Don't forget, you have a head injury after all."

"You kids should all go to sleep." Kogoro muttered, eyeing the two teens plus Conan. "Damn kids never get enough sleep nowadays."

Kaito slid off his chair and stood up to leave the room. It was true that little Conan needed to rest, and although Kaito knew he could go around and do his own investigating, he knew the kid would sneak out of his bedroom and try to track him down if he tried to do so on his own.

Kaito could sneak around and try to do the investigating without being seen, but with all of these detectives milling around, the risk of getting caught being too good at sneaking around was not worth it. "I'm going to bed." He announced. "Good night, and see you all tomorrow morning."

This was still Friday evening anyway. They had 2 full days and most of the 3rd day to investigate. They had plenty of time.

Kaito then walked out of the room after calls of 'Good nights' were made to him, with Conan running after him. Conan however, paused in front of the door as if he thought of something before calling out to Kogoro. "I'm going to sleep in Kaito-niichan's room! We're going to be working together after all, so you can't listen to our secret plans!" Not waiting for a response, the little child closed the door and caught up to the exasperated looking teenager.

 _You're not in the clear yet, mister._ Shinichi thought, as he followed his look-alike. Along with the mansion mystery, Shinichi couldn't help but be curious about this shady ally. Additionally, Shinichi knew that mornings were not good times to be trying to keep up a cover. If he woke up, saw Kogoro's familiar face, and said something not-Conan, it would be bad news.

 _Persistent little-_ Kaito thought before sighing in resignation. As long as Conan didn't regain his memory, Kaito should be safe for now. And even if he did, Kaito hadn't given the squirt enough proof to be certain that he knew about his identity. Ironically, perhaps it was best that they stuck together in that sense. The less Conan left his side, the less Kaito had to risk exposing his knowledge about the pipsqueak's secret to save him.

"Come on." Kaito said, gesturing tiredly at the little boy. "But we're not doing any planning. It's late, you're seven years old, you have a head injury, and you're going to sleep."

"I know." Shinichi replied without much fight. It was still Friday evening after all. He had plenty of time to figure things out.

000

Conan stirred as he felt his consciousness returning to him, and blearily opened his eyes before yawning quietly. _Wow._ He thought, blinking sleepily. _That dream was weird as F***_. Sitting up, he stretched sleepily before stepping out of his bed-

And promptly fell flat on his face.

Now fully awake Conan jumped up, flinching at the sharp pain coming from his head injury from yesterday. However, paying no heed to the discomfort, he whipped around and jumped back onto the bed he had just been sleeping on. _Holy SHIT. That wasn't a dream?!_ _In that case-_

Conan gulped as he saw a mop of hair poking out of the covers from the farther end of the bed. Crawling over cautiously, he poked at the head, almost afraid to check who it was. However, getting no encouraging response, Conan reached over and pinched the other boy's cheek. He almost felt bad for being a jerk to someone he barely knew so early in the morning, but Conan _had_ to check.

"Ow!" Kaito sputtered, rubbing his cheek where it had been pinched, and then sat up to look at the offender. "Ugh, Conan-kun. Good morning to you _too._ Geez, what's wrong with you?"

Conan blinked, speechless. _You're kidding me._ "I… I just wanted to check… you're really not Shinichi-niichan?" _Is that seriously your real face?!_ Conan screamed inwardly. This was insane. Reality was _insane._

"Not that again…" Kaito yawned. "No. I'm not Shinichi Kudo. This is my real face. Gosh darn, you need to relax."

Conan blinked, before replying weakly. "Sorry, it's just, still disoriented from yesterday."

Kaito stretched and then patted Conan on the shoulder. "Hey, don't worry about it kiddo. You've had it rough."

Before Conan could respond, Kaito turned away from him and stepped out of bed to shuffle around to get a change of clothes. Conan put his head in between his knees, closing his eyes and trying to think straight. _What. The. Hell._

He didn't know what to do. When he woke up, Conan had thought he had dreamt going to a mansion with Kogoro to look at some weird case with disappearing people and a weird jewel, and then hit his head and forgot about being Conan, and then met a mysterious doppelganger who, knowing what knew now, would make a lot of sense if he was KID.

But here he was.

Not a dream.

Real doppelganger.

Real likely candidate for being the real KID.

 _My luck… is amazing._ Conan thought sarcastically. Incredibly, he was at a loss of what to do.

Conan weighed out his options, not liking any of them but knowing he had to choose one of them now.

One, he could let this look-alike know that 'Conan' was back, and go back to being his usual self. However, the teen would have to turn dumb and hide all his cards from Conan, making it harder for both of them to solve this house mystery. Granted, Conan could just ditch the mystery, but that was uncharacteristic of him. Besides, he had promised yesterday that he would solve it. Judging from the reaction Kaito had to the jewel legend, and the strange confusion he had over the former KID's last heist supposedly having been here, Kaito wasn't going to drop this case either.

Two, Conan could keep the status quo and pretend he was still missing his memories of becoming little. This way, he could keep an excuse to stick to the teen, and they could work together to solve the mystery. If this guy was KID, it would be really easy to work with him, considering he knew Conan was Shinichi. Not to mention, Conan had already shown an understanding yesterday that 'Shinichi' had to be hidden, so it would be easy to stay behaved enough to not force Kaito to expose more of his knowledge that he shouldn't have if he wasn't KID.

Three, Conan could keep pretending he was still missing his memories of being little, and use the situation to his advantage to stick close to Kaito and obtain proof from him that the teen was KID.

 _No._ Conan paused at the third option. _That's utterly immoral._ As infuriating and difficult KID could be, if Kaito were really KID, this would be an extremely nasty way to expose him. After all, the teenager had been risking himself since yesterday to keep Shinichi's identity safe as well as keep him sane. He could have just left Shinichi to wallow in his confusion and misery, while letting 'Conan's identity come into danger while keeping 'KID's completely safe.

 _Then… option two?_ That seemed like the best option for now. This was weird beyond belief. He had somehow landed himself in a situation where he would be attempting to trick the king of tricksters for the sake of solving a mystery. _What is wrong with my life?_

"Hey Conan-kun, are you going to go to sleep again?" Conan was snapped out of his musings as the voice of the object of his concern interrupted his line of thought. Kaito was looking at him with worry. "Does your head still hurt?"

"No I'm fine. Don't worry about me." Conan replied quickly, sitting up again, and then hopping out of the bed in hurry. _Ugh, if only you weren't so nice, I would have such an easier time catching you._

He then looked over at the teen to ask a question to keep up his act, "Just to check, what day is it? I… just want to make sure it's the day I think it is."

"Sure." Kaito replied, looking at his watch. "It's Saturday, the 4th." He then reached over for his phone and turned it on to get the satellite retrieved time and date to make the detective feel better. "It also says that on-" he paused, frowning as he saw what was displayed on the screen. "Oh, maybe not. My phone must be malfunctioning. It's still yesterday."

"Ah, don't worry about it." Conan replied, looking at his own watch and confirming that it also said Saturday the 4th. Electrical devices break after all, and if two watches said Saturday, then it was 2 devices vs 1. However, just to make sure, Conan reached over for his own cell phone and frowned as he saw it was broken as well. _Strange… and in the same way?_ "Oh… my phone also says Friday. Weird."

Conan kneaded his head, trying to avoid the tender spot from the injury, while trying to wile away the impending headache. "Let's go to the living room and watch the news." He said. "I remember it being connected yesterday, so this house must have cable. Even if satellite signals may be messed up coming here, cable should be okay." Usually Conan would dismiss this, but he was getting kind of paranoid about time confusion now. Besides, he was getting a terrible feeling about this.

"Right" Kaito nodded, "Get dressed, and let's go."

As the two hurried over to the living room, they heard the sound of the television before they even entered. It seemed someone else was up already, and watching the news.

"Good morning boys." Ikumi looked up from her spot on the couch as she saw Kaito and Conan walk in, looking concerned. She frowned at the look, and then at the television. "Here to catch the news?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact." Kaito responded, feeling nervous for some odd reason as his eyes darted over to the television screen. _Ugh, I don't need to know about that coverage! They already said that yesterday! What is the date?_

"It's encouraging to know that young men such as you two are making the effort to keep up with current events, however" she looked apologetically at them, "it seems the cable network is having issues. They are replaying yesterday's news."

'… _Friday the 3_ _rd_ _. Since it is right on the verge of a three day weekend, I am sure there are many excited families-'_

Both Conan and Kaito looked at each other worriedly as they heard what Ikumi said along with the conversation the tv anchors were having. Although the strip at the top of the screen read 'LIVE', the anchors clearly believed they were still in yesterday.

"Ah, it seems so many things are malfunctioning today." All three of them looked towards the door as they heard Hakuba's exasperated voice from the doorway. "My phone is also showing the date to be yesterday."

"Oh!" Ikumi responded, quirking her eyebrows in surprise. "Mine too."

"Hey what a party we have here." Mogi also joined the room, looking none too pleased. "And what the hell? The tv is showing yesterday's news, and all three of our cell phones are showing the wrong date?"

"Someone is messing with us." Hakuba said, narrowing his eyes, his accusatory glance shooting over at his classmate. "Messing with our satellite and our cable reception."

Kaito met his classmate's glare with a defensive look. _Not me!_ He tried to relay his innocence wordlessly. Hakuba frowned, and although he dismissed him for now, it was clear he did so without believing him.

"I've looked at the cable line already." Ikumi responded, "It's connected, and hasn't been tampered with from this room."

"The jewel that stops time." Conan suddenly muttered cryptically in a low voice.

All heads turned to look at the little boy as he continued muttering with a worried look on his face. "A jewel that cries and stops time. That's what I heard was the sort of jewel that used to be here. Maybe-OUCH!" Conan looked up, eyes brimming with tears at the sore spot on his head. At least Kogoro had the decency to avoid his injury, but it still hurt nonetheless.

"I wake up, come to the living room to watch the news, see you all here gathered without me, and the first thing I hear is this _nonsense_ mumbo jumbo about a magical jewel!" Kogoro grumbled, glaring at Conan. "Take your bratty nonsense elsewhere!"

"But old man, since I heard the scary monster jewel here also cries and stops time, I was scared we are trapped in Friday!" Conan whined, sounding the child he looked. "Everyone's phones say yesterday's date, and" he pointed towards the television playing yesterday's news. "even though the news says 'LIVE', they say it's Friday!"

"Hmph, if there is such a rumor, then there is no doubt there is someone out there playing with us to make us think we are trapped in the same day." Hakuba scoffed, again looking at Kaito, who again looked away in defiance. "There is no such thing as magic, after all."

Kaito put his face in his hands, suddenly feeling a spout of dizziness. _No such thing as magic._ He ignored Akako's existence nagging at his head for a moment there. She didn't count right now. _No such thing._ He wanted to believe this, wanted to trust these detectives and their cynicism. Usually, he would, but this situation was beyond scary to him. The obvious cover up by his own father and Shinichi's father, the obvious reference to Pandora, this mansion being the real last heist scene of the former KID, the disappearing persons, the dead amnesiac witness, and now this.

"No such thing as magic." Kaito muttered, looking up and meeting Hakuba's surprised face. "Can I trust you on that?"

TBC


	4. Tears

Ch.4 Tears

"I can't believe you, of all people, would say something like that." Hakuba replied, looking concerned. "Of course not. Or at least, I am sure this issue with the messed up dates is a prank."

"Look you can all stand around here talking, but I'm going to have breakfast." Kogoro grumbled, turning to leave the room. "Toki-san prepared us some food in the dining room, and I'm hungry." Conan blinked after him at hearing the unfamiliar name as the man walked away, grumbling about how it was too early for all this nonsense.

"Who's Toki-san?" he piped up, throwing out the question at no one in particular. Although he had regained his memories as Conan, he _was_ actually out of commission for a bit after his encounter with the vase after all. Perhaps he had missed meeting this person. The name sounded like an old woman's and it would make sense if she were the maid, who had prepared breakfast.

True to his deduction, Kaito answered for him. "She's the maid. She showed up after that vase fell on you, so you probably haven't met her yet."

Kaito, in turn, sighed. Hakuba's incredulous response as well as Kogoro's mention of breakfast had interrupted his momentary lapse in keeping his calm. "I'm joining Detective Mouri for breakfast. Let's go, Conan-kun."

The rest of the crew decided they would get food too, because there was really no point in milling around thinking about something that was obviously a prank. Someone was most likely trying to spook the detectives into avoiding looking into the mystery of this mansion, but they were too smart and had lived through too many worse situations before to be disoriented from something so silly.

While munching on a croissant, Conan mused on the deepening mystery. The pieces were gathering, but they were not falling into place. The dull pain from his injury from the day before wasn't helping either. Either the pain was distracting him or bits of the amnesia were left over, because the injury was giving him bouts of confusion. _That makes no sense._ Conan reprimanded himself at the thought. _Injuries do not have feelings._ Finishing his food, he slid off the chair to excuse himself. "I need to go check something in my room." He announced, before running out.

Although Conan had not believed for a moment that the crazy rumor about the jewel that 'stops time' was true (he believed the rumor was more of a scare tactic), he still needed to check and double check everything. Conan had remembered feeling a splash of cold the moment the vase had fallen on him so it probably had a little bit of water in it. The hoodie he had been wearing then had been hung up to dry by his bedroom window, so he was going to check up on it.

Watching the little boy run out, Kaito narrowed his eyes slightly at the retreating back. Since amnesia was a rather rare condition, he didn't have that much experience with it. However, considering the energy Tantei-kun was displaying, and the lack of concern the other detectives had shown over the injury, Kaito was getting a little suspicious. "Ikumi-san, may I ask you something about Conan-kun's injury?"

"Sure. Go ahead."

Although she was no doctor, the woman used to be a police officer after all. More than the average civilian, she may have encountered a few confused amnesiacs here and there. "How quickly does amnesia caused from the degree of Conan-kun's injury usually get fixed?"

"From what I saw when I treated him, it was pretty light trauma." She continued, "If he lost only a few months like Mogi-san suggested," she glanced over at the older detective, "the approximate amount of time lost would fit the level of injury." Ikumi then turned back to look at Kaito again. "That amnesia should have fixed itself in a few hours, so Conan-kun should have recovered while asleep." She blinked. "Didn't he say anything?"

"I need to go check on him." Kaito responded and getting up quickly, he half ran out of the room, ignoring the amused looks the detectives were giving him. Unfortunately, he couldn't act like he cared _that_ much about Conan remembering being 'Conan' without giving himself away, but mini Kudo was no actor. If Kaito let him know he was assuming the twerp had already recovered, the child was bound to let a guilty expression slip.

However, there was another thing that was bothering him. Mini Kudo couldn't act to save his life, let alone deceive Kaito, the king of deception, into believing that he had forgotten how he had become Conan. If what the lady detective said was true, and Kaito had no reason to doubt the professional's observations here, Conan had lost _too many_ months yesterday.

It was unnatural. Kaito knew the cynical detectives did not believe in the 'magic' stuff, but Kaito's fear came back again in full force after he had realized this detail regarding Conan's memory loss.

It was this again. _Time. Why did he lose too much time?_ Kaito thought desperately as his quick pace broke into a run as he headed towards the room he knew the child would be. _And why just the 'Conan' time? It's almost as if he forgot…. a life._

Conan smiled as he patted down the hoodie, satisfied that it had dried out. This, along with their memories as well as their watches, was other physical proof that time had actually gone by. No matter how much the amnesia yesterday had temporarily rattled him and his trust in reality as he knew it, now that Conan got his memories back, he was not afraid anymore. He could trust himself.

"Conan-kun." Conan almost jumped out of his skin as a voice sounded behind him. Startled, he whipped around and pressed himself against the window to face the speaker. Heart pounding furiously, the detective willed himself to calm down before speaking again.

"What do you need, Kaito-niichan?" Conan hadn't heard the speaker come into the room, but he really shouldn't have been surprised at the level of stealth the teen in front of him displayed. The guy was currently KID suspect number one in his books after all.

"What are you doing?" Kaito asked, looking curiously over at the boy's position by the window and the hoodie the kid was wearing yesterday. _Has he figured out a hint?_ The question about whether or not Conan had actually gained back his memories could wait for a few more seconds. "Did you find something interesting with that hoodie of yours?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact." Conan replied, laughing nervously, and continued speaking as he pretended not to notice the other teen narrowing his eyes at the nervous response. "There was a little bit of water in the vase that broke, so I was checking if my hoodie had actually dried out. If time actually stopped, then the hoodie should still be wet!" He then turned around to make a show of touching his hoodie while he thought frantically. _Drats! Has he figured out I've already recovered from my amnesia? Or have one of the other detectives tipped him off?_

Conan's train of thought was interrupted, however, as he felt a damp spot still left near the pocket of his hoodie. _Strange, just this spot failed to dry?_

As his movement stopped, Conan looked up in surprise as a hand reached over his head to reach into the pocket and pull something out.

"What's this?" Kaito asked, looking at the wet, deformed bead he had taken from the hoodie pocket. It kind of looked like two pearly white beads failed to become two separate ones like they were supposed to. The teen frowned, and then pulled a mini loupe from out of his pocket to examine it. Then he put it up against his teeth, ignoring the little detective that was jumping around, trying to see what he had taken out of the pocket. _Huh,_ He thought, quirking his eyebrow. "It's a deformed pearl."

Kaito then looked down at the confused looking Conan before he bent down to become eye level with him. "By the way, I know you've gotten your memories back." He said as he handed the pearl to the boy. Kaito waited for the inevitable reaction, a micro expression that would give away the guilt, but instead he got nothing. Conan's expression was completely blank, staring at the bead that had been placed on his hand.

"Conan-kun?" Kaito pressed, and gently shook one of the boy's shoulders. He was getting a little tired of getting freaked out; especially by the guy in front of him.

Conan, in turn, had not heard him. Sinking down into the ground, the boy blinked as he found himself staring at his hands. They were covered in dirt. He looked around. The wind was cool in his hair and the air smelled like a clear, summer evening, perfect for a night out with Ran. _Ran?_ Confusion and fear gripped him as he realized how familiar this moment was. Shinichi focused on his hands again. _Small and covered in dirt._ He blinked from his position on the ground. _Clothes too large, no fake glasses, pain at the_ _ **back**_ _of the head._ The newly shrunk Shinichi covered his eyes as he saw flashlights shining into his eyes-

And then Conan was back in the present, leaning back against the wall and sitting down on the ground, fists clutched tightly and face pale and surprised.

"Conan-kun?" Conan shook his head to clear it, and then he blinked to focus on the worried face in front of him. The boy noticed the teen had put his hand on his shoulder. The touch was warm and real, letting Conan know that he was really here in the present, and not back at that horrifying moment he had _actually_ realized he had shrunk.

"Ka…kaito-niichan?" Conan responded, hating the way his own voice trembled. "For a moment there I-" he then stopped. Conan couldn't confide in what he 'remembered'; he wasn't actually sure of this guy's identity after all. But why did he have that flashback? If Conan was a real amnesiac recovering the memory he had lost, this would make a bit more sense, but Conan had already recovered all of his memories. For a reason he couldn't place, Conan felt himself looking down at the deformed pearl he had received from the other teen and thinking, _I knew that memory already. That was mine._

Conan then blinked as he felt the evening air again. He was looking up at the sky, riddled with stars and a large, white moon. He looked down at his right hand. It was a grown man's hand, too large to be his own, clothed in a white glove. The arm was covered in a similarly white sleeve- _Who?_ Conan was violently pulled back into reality as he expressed confusion, and then groaned and put his face in his hands.

Shaking away the concern of the teen in front of him, Conan crawled over to his duffel bag. Rummaging around, he pulled out a small plastic bag and slipped the pearl into it. "This isn't mine." _And neither was that memory._ Conan spoke, finally addressing the other occupant of the room in a steady voice since his little flashback. "It's evidence for whatever's going on here."

"Oh." Kaito responded dumbly. _What was up with Tantei-kun just now? Don't tell me he really HAD lost a year in memories and is still recuperating?_ "By the way, what happened to you just now?"

"I…" Conan thought about how he should answer this. "remembered some things."

 _Well, that response sounds like he remembered some things he can't elaborate on, so I guess that fits with him still recovering Conan memories…_ Kaito thought as he heard the obviously uneasy response. "And just to confirm what you just said, that pearl isn't yours?"

"Nope."

000

Unbeknownst to Kaito, as soon as the boy had run out of the room, the detectives left behind in the dining room had begun their analysis on him.

"So." Mogi started, staring after the door Kaito had just disappeared out of, "detective boy, why did you _actually_ bring that friend of yours over to this mansion case?"

"Whatever do you mean, Mogi-san?" Hakuba replied smoothly, sipping on his tea nonchalantly.

"He said already that they had a school project to work together on." Kogoro stated, looking at Mogi in confusion, "Weren't you listening?"

"As a matter of fact, I'm curious as well." Ikumi piped up, ignoring Kogoro's statement, and opting to look over at Hakuba. "You can't expect us to believe that you brought over a random classmate or a friend over to a potentially dangerous case like this merely for a school project."

"Besides, he seemed pretty concerned for that Conan kid yesterday, despite having only just met him then." Mogi continued, smirking at Hakuba. "Additionally, you've complimented the guy's intelligence over Conan's despite all of us knowing how intelligent the brat is."

"And don't think we haven't noticed your little looks of disapproval and suspicion over at Kuroda-kun since yesterday, every time Conan would say something ridiculous, or every time we would discuss the clocks getting messed up on our watches and the TV?" Ikumi added on, smiling just as mischievously. "Confusing someone as sharp as Conan-kun, as well as messing up all of our phones and the TV under our noses without us noticing, requires a lot of intelligence and stealth."

"And he's not the Kudo brat." Kogoro grumbled trying to throw in at least something amongst the onslaught of observations he hadn't even thought the others had been making. "But he's a weirdo smart-alek look alike that might know Conan. Is that what you all of you are saying?"

Hakuba sighed, putting down his teacup calmly. Despite having done pretty much nothing in front of these people, he should have expected they would still have been picking out every little detail about the newest member of their party without missing a thing. Kuroba's precaution to disguise his family name to something common and unassuming had been right.

"As expected from excellent detectives." Hakuba replied, sounding defeated, "I did not bring Kuroda-kun for a school project. I brought him because he has proven himself to be very intelligent, and I had been hoping he would be a bit of assistance in solving the mystery here. I assumed he would be able to provide us with a different perspective on things, not being a detective and all. Although" he paused, rubbing his temple, "Kuroda-kun can be a bit feisty at times. He is quite the prankster."

"I see." Ikumi responded, while Mogi kept looking at Hakuba. Neither of them clearly believed that to be the entire story, but as long as they could confirm Kaito Kuroda was nobody shady, they would let it go.

"Any reason he would be familiar with Conan?" Kogoro asked, feeling a bit of concern for his charge. The boy could take care of himself, but he seemed to have a lot of mysterious acquaintances. And if this Kudo look-alike was one of them, maybe he could shed some light on where the real Kudo brat was. Kogoro didn't really care where Shinichi was as long as he was alive and kicking, but his daughter did, so it was good to find another potential resource.

"One of our classmates is the daughter of Inspector Nakamori, the man in charge of the division in charge of chasing after Kaitou KID." Hakuba replied smoothly, "Everyone in our class is familiar with Conan-kun, since we follow the news of that thief."

Mogi laughed again, hearing the first believable response from Hakuba, as well as seeing Kogoro's annoyed look. "If you're not careful, pretty soon that brat will be taking over your agency, Mouri!"

000

"Kaito-niichan." Conan spoke, trying to forget the strange 'flashbacks' he had experienced moments before. "Why did you know it was a pearl?"

"Well, it kind of looks like a pearl, so I just assumed it was." Kaito responded, not willing to give details. "Haven't you ever seen one?"

"Well yes, but they are usually round and white." Conan responded, not letting the teen off the hook. "This just looks like a failed glass bead."

"Then maybe it's a failed glass bead." Kaito said, shrugging. It didn't really matter to him if the boy in front of him believed the pearl to be real or not. Kaito assumed the important thing was that there was some unidentified, wet object left in Conan's hoodie. "Who cares? All that matters is that it wasn't supposed to be there, right?"

"Yes I guess so." Conan said, looking at the pearl in the baggie again. Obviously, the teen in front of him had checked for its authenticity, and if he really was KID, then the thing was a real pearl. However, as the teen had mentioned, it probably didn't really matter if it was real or not. Even if it were real, the dilapidated shape would give it a low value. And even if it were fake, all that mattered was that a pearl-like object had been slipped into Conan's hoodie without him noticing, and that it was still wet.

"Let's go-" "Let's go-" The two stopped as they found themselves speaking at the same time. "Go on" Kaito said, gesturing towards the detective. He was probably better at the investigating thing anyway.

"Sorry, let's go check out the scene of my accident with the vase." Conan said, taking the invitation to speak first. "What were you about to say?"

"The same thing." Kaito nodded, smiling as he stood up and headed towards the door. "Come on."

As the two walked down the hallway, Conan decided to start up the conversation this time. He had remembered the last time they had walked down the hall like this, they had spoken about some weird jewel. Conan figured he would try this again, now that he could assume Kaito had a lot more expert knowledge on the subject that he had previously thought.

"Say, Kaito-niichan."

"What?"

"What would a jewel's tears be like?"

"Huh?" Kaito looked down at Conan, not liking the topic. Why did he keep bringing it up?

"Well I don't know about jewels much, but I'm pretty sure they don't have eyes like us, and it would be weird to call water droplets coming from a gem 'tears'." Conan replied matter of factly, "If droplets of water come from a stone, I'm sure we would just call it 'condensation', not 'tears'."

Kaito sighed and rolled his eyes. "That's what you detectives would call it. You have no dreams or romance at all in your worldviews."

"Why do you keep calling me a 'detective' anyway?"

"As I said before, you're in the news sometimes. You're a mini detective that's known for going after Kaitou KID." Kaito replied, not missing a beat. "I had hoped though, as a child, you would be a bit more prone to having an imagination."

"Sorry." Conan scoffed, not feeling sorry at all. "But, being so familiar with Kaitou KID news, and being good enough to figure out that dilapidated glass bead from earlier was a real pearl, I assumed Kaito-niichan was pretty familiar with jewels." He looked up challengingly at his companion, only to be met with a thoughtful look. _Goddamit, won't he show even a smidgeon of uneasiness?_ Conan thought, frustrated. He had thought that previous line had been provocative enough, but it hadn't fazed the teen in front of him one bit. "So, Kaito-niichan, what would a jewel's tears look like?"

It was a stupid conversation, but he had started it, so Conan figured he would at least see it through to the end.

"Well, there is a jewel associated with tears, but it's not a gemstone…" Kaito frowned. _But this sort of coincidence… If we assume our time confusion is not coming from real magic, is someone really messing with us?_ "Pearls." He stated, giving Conan a look. "Pearls are associated with tears." _And the moon._ Kaito added on in his head, but that shouldn't really matter right? The detectives didn't know much about the Pandora gem legend, so the moon part shouldn't really concern the boy in front of him. "So if a gem 'cries', maybe it will drop pearls."

"Weird." Conan replied, thinking about the dilapidated pearl that had been in his pocket. So whoever was messing with their time was clearly aware of the gem rumor. Conan found that strange, because he had assumed that rumor was a bad joke his dad had made up, but it seemed someone was trying to make them think it was real.

As they ended their conversation awkwardly, they approached the foyer where Conan's head had met the vase. The two stood as they stared at the scene in front of them. Surprisingly, Kaito was starting to feel a bit of irritation pull at his conscience as he saw the unaffected vase sitting primly in place, not broken at all. "Conan-kun, is that the vase you saw before it smashed into your head?"

"Yes." Conan replied, walking over to it as he examined it curiously. "There were no other vases, and this one has the exact same pattern and make."

"That's _it_." Kaito muttered, irritation creeping into his voice. Someone was clearly messing with them, knowing about the jewel legend. However, it was wrong. Panodra's tears did not _stop time_ , it _granted immortality_ to those who drank it. "Tantei-kun, before we figure out this 'missing persons' mystery or whatever, we need to figure out who is messing with our heads using this jewel legend, and stop them." Conan looked up, looking a little surprised at the outburst. "It's not funny, and whoever's doing this to us will _pay._ "

"Ri…right." Conan responded, gulping. He didn't think this strange teen would take the jewel joke so personally. Considering KID was a huge prankster himself, Conan assumed an elaborate prank like this would impress him. However, it was true that this 'time' thing was messing with their other heavier investigation, and that was unacceptable. "Let's catch-" _them_. Conan was about to say, before something on the ground in front of him caught his eye. He picked the object up to examine it. It was a small, triangular charm; green with a white clover imprinted on it. _What's this doing here?_ Conan thought, before he pocketed it quietly. The boy would have presented it to Kaito to see how he would have reacted, but Conan had heard a pair of footsteps coming their way. Perhaps it was another detective, or the maid, Toki-san, coming this way.

 _Toki-san, who appeared after the vase broke._ Conan thought for a moment, before dismissing the thought. _Who cares?_ What was happening to them was not magic. The vase breaking was part of the plan to mess up their concept of time, and if anyone could do something like replace this strange vase, it would be the maid. They needed to go speak to her.

Turning around, Conan was slightly disappointed but a bit relieved to see that it was just Hakuba who was joining them. Although he was not the next person Conan had been planning to speak to, Hakuba might know what to make of the random KID monocle charm that was on the ground. "Hey, Hakuba-niichan." Conan piped up, waving over the teen that was heading towards them, "What do you think of-" he froze as he reached into his pocket, only to find nothing. _What the hell? I just put it there._

"What do I think of what, Conan-kun?"

Conan blinked, sticking his hands into both of his pockets, and then looking at the ground around him, still not coming up with the charm. "Uh, never mind." Kaito couldn't have taken anything either, because the teen had been standing pretty far from him, and had started walking towards Hakuba before Conan had noticed the other teen approaching them. KID or not, he couldn't have picked his pocket from that distance.

 _It's gone._ Conan tried not to let this occurrence bother him. He could still trust himself, right? Nothing spooky was happening here. Nothing at all. Magic was not real after all.

TBC


	5. Memories

Ch. 5 Memories

Shrugging off the weird occurrence, Conan decided to think on what had just happened later. Perhaps that monocle had been his imagination. He _had_ gotten his memories jumbled up recently after all, and plus, he was hanging out with someone he was suspecting to be KID. Maybe that had been a memory of when he had picked up the monocle in the past, right after he had knocked it off the thief's face as he flew off after the Purple Nails heist. Memories were a powerful thing after all. He figured it was how the human brain recorded time in its own way. However, Conan also knew that memories could also be a little untrustworthy. That was why he preferred hard evidence and recordings.

What he needed to do was speak to Toki, the maid. She must have been behind the vase replacement. Now that he thought about it, if he had remembered right the vase yesterday had a ceramic lid, which was missing today. It was a relatively large vase, slightly taller than Conan's himself, and he had been trying to look inside it when it tipped over and hit him. He paused for a moment at that recollection of the incident. Would an impact like that be hard enough to make a child lose consciousness? And not to mention, cause amnesia? Conan decided to make that another clue to file away to think about later.

Although it bothered him that he hadn't heard of Toki until today, the timing of her appearing at the mansion right after the vase breaking was probably a coincidence. After all, the two teens with him in this foyer appeared after the vase breaking too, and they weren't showing any signs of being 'magical'. Conan frowned at that thought. _Although speaking of which, Kaito is pretty shady, and Hakuba was the one that brought him here…_

"Conan-kun, did you bring a soccer ball?" Jerked out of his musings, Conan snapped his head up to look up at Kaito, who was looking over at the other side at the room. Surprised at the comment, Conan followed the teen's line of vision and balked. He hadn't brought one, nor had he brought the soccer belt this trip; it had been malfunctioning so he had left it with Agasa.

"No." However, no matter how he looked at it, Conan could tell from this distance that it was that temporary soccer ball. It looked exactly the same, not to mention-

"What a terrible ball… it went flat already." Kaito commented, before sending a sidelong glance over at Conan. _He looks confused._ Kaito noted, looking at the little detectives face. _So maybe it wasn't him that used it? Or did he by accident?_ He hadn't seen the boy wearing the dreaded soccer ball-producing belt, but it could've fit in the kid's pocket. _If little 'Shinichi' doesn't know how to use it, does that mean that belt is a 'Conan' era gadget?_

" _What_ are you two going on about?" Hakuba interrupted both his classmate's and Conan's thoughts, as he folded his arms and looked quizzically over at where the two had been looking. "I don't see any soccer ball."

Kaito blinked at Hakuba in confusion, while Conan looked up at the teen in alarm. Then Conan ran over to where the flattened soccer ball… should have been. _What was going on?_ That little moment with the strange charm, he could brush off, but _this._ It was a shared moment of seeing something that shouldn't have been there.

However, without having much time to dwell on it, Conan froze as he heard something that made his heart flutter with… regret. Spinning around, the boy ran past the other two surprised teens to head towards the melancholy sound of a piano. Conan absentmindedly noted that both Hakuba and Kaito were following him, but didn't pay it much mind. He had to get to the room with the piano. The melody was both familiar and horrifying. It reminded him of one of his early cases as Conan; the one case where he had let the murderer kill himse- "Argh!" Conan fell flat on his back as he ran into Kogoro, who had apparently been running towards the same door from the other side of the hallway.

"Brat!" Kogoro yelled, before he roughly pulled up Conan by the hand. "Should have known you would show up too!"

"Come on old man, I think it's this room the piano sound is coming from!" Conan yelled back, not having the patience to wait. The regret he was feeling from this piano music was overwhelming. And then, it stopped. The music stopped.

The two looked at each other in horror, before opening the door.

"What's going on here?" Ikumi frowned, looking over at the intruders that had burst into the room she was investigating. "Mouri-san? Conan-kun? And you boys too. What's going on?"

Kogoro and Conan looked at each other again, before looking into the room with Ikumi in it in confusion. There _was_ a piano in the room. However, the cover was still over the keys, and the only person that was in the room was Ikumi with her luminol bottle in hand.

"Were you playing the piano?" Conan asked, dreading the answer. He could tell already that she hadn't been playing. Yet… he had heard it. And Kogoro had heard it too.

"No." Ikumi replied promptly, giving the boy a strange look. "If I were, you would have heard me."

"We _did_ hear the piano." Kogoro shot back, crossing his arms defiantly and then stalking into the room to get a closer look at the instrument. "That's why we came over here."

"You both heard what?" Conan and Kogoro looked over Kaito, who was looking at them with incredulity. "Piano music? And not to mention, from a different part of this mansion?" Kaito knew he had good hearing, so it was strange to know that two separate people from different parts of the large mansion had both heard music that Kaito hadn't heard _at all_.

"I didn't hear it either." Hakuba added on, before raising his eyebrows at Kaito. "However, if even you didn't hear it, this is quite curious indeed." Kaito frowned at this comment. _Has Hakuba been gauging the level of my hearing abilities as well?_

Conan froze at the comments. It was this _again._ A shared moment of… insanity? Was he finally going insane? _No._ Conan reprimanded himself as he willed himself to calm down. _No._ _This is not shared insanity._ It was a shared moment. Conan closed his eyes as he tried to think. He needed more clues. He couldn't shake the disturbing thought though, that whoever had done this had known that this particular shared moment with the piano music had also been a shared memory between him and Kogoro in the past.

Conan blinked as a thought struck him. "A shared _memory._ " He muttered, before looking over at the piano in wonder. _But… that's impossible._ And for the first time since encountering these strange happenings in this mansion, Conan felt fear. The piano in front of him now looked dripping wet, yet… No one-

The little boy shook his head to clear it. _Don't panic._ _Think! Going with the logic of shared memories, who shared this moment with you?_

Unaware of the inner turmoil of the small detective in front of her, Ikumi sighed as she walked over to Conan. "Conan-kun, perhaps you heard the music from a different room." She looked over at Kogoro quizzically. "You heard it too, right? Are you sure it was from here?"

"Or maybe something strange is in the water back at the Mouri's place." A voice sounded from outside the room as Mogi walked down the hallway to join them. "Come on, I've found something interesting in the other room."

 _Mogi!_ Conan inwardly exclaimed as he heard the man come closer. _Mogi and KID as Kogoro shared this moment with me!_ He glanced over at Kaito, who was giving Conan a strange look but nothing that revealed that he had noticed the wet piano. Conan didn't dwell on that much though; even if he were the real KID, the guy probably would not have given away much anyway. Conan needed Mogi to help him determine his hunch. "Mogi-san! Before that, look at this piano!"

"Huh? Why?" Mogi asked, ambling into the room looking confused, before he stopped in his tracks.

"Occhan and I _really_ heard this piano!" Conan exclaimed, pointing towards the instrument. _Come on, come on, SEE it!_

Conan inwardly cheered as he saw Mogi give Ikumi an amused look, before walking over to the instrument. "I see you're at it again, Ikumi-san." He then, put out his hand towards her. "Mind if I borrow a black-light to see this piano?"

Ikumi quirked her eyes quizzically before she pulled out a light and handed it to Mogi. "Sure, but I hadn't checked the piano yet."

Conan watched the exchange with bated breath, his heart beating frantically. Impossibly, his theory was proving itself right so far.

Mogi quirked his eyebrows at that, before he shined the dripping wet instrument. "Then why's it wet?" He then frowned as he saw a message glowing as a result. "Hey it's the same message from the Karasuma case."

"What?"

 _Don't see it, don't see it._ Conan thought to himself as he saw Ikumi peering over to look at the clearly still glowing message. He glanced over at Kaito, who was still watching the exchange with a blank expression. Conan then looked over at Kogoro and Hakuba, who looked extremely confused. _Good_.

"I don't see any message." Ikumi replied, frowning. "And don't make such a sick joke." She stuck her hand out to take the light back from Mogi. "The mystery on our hands is heavy as it is without your jesting."

Kaito looked down at Conan again after the strange exchange, to see the little detective staring intently at the two older detectives. _Did you figure something out?_ Kaito had seen the message as well, but hadn't said anything. He was too distracted, mulling over what Tantei-kun had muttered earlier. " _A shared memory"?_

"Mogi-san." Conan said, jutting in before their conversation could go further, which would cause things to be muddled even more, "What was the interesting thing you found in a different room?" He looked over at the man. "Can you show us? I want to see!"

"Sure thing kiddo." Mogi said, handing back the light to Ikumi and shrugging off her disbelief. Her reaction was strange, but maybe it was to get back at him for the sick joke that he _did_ pull back at the Karasuma case, when he had pretended to be poisoned. "Follow me."

000

Although Conan was starting to see the requirements for different people seeing the same… what… 'memories'? He still couldn't figure out how it was being carried out. It almost seemed magical, but... He stole a glance over at Kaito, and then jolted as he noticed the teen was looking at him very intensely. It was the searching sort of look Conan was used to giving others, but ironically, always hated when targeted at himself. "Is there something on my face, Kaito-niichan?"

"Conan-kun." Kaito started, still giving him the quizzical stare, "You don't believe in magic, do you?"

"Hey don't be trying to pollute that young mind with crazy stuff, Kuroda." Mogi butt in, stopping in front of a door. Only Kaito and Conan had accompanied him, since Ikumi had gone to a different part of the mansion to keep with her own investigation, as had Hakuba, and Kogoro had gone outside to smoke. Mogi then opened the door, revealing the room. "Strange, isn't it? This room."

Kaito stared, literally not making a sound as he stepped into the empty room. "It's completely empty." He stated. _And dusty._ He mentally added on, noting the dust particles illuminated by the sunlight shining through the windows lining the far side of the room. It was indeed strange. The rest of the mansion was fully furnished and well kept. Granted, this room could have just been neglected, due to it being an extra one that was unneeded, but considering the location of the room relative to the other furnished ones, this was weird.

"It's unnatural." Kaito whispered, mind going blank as he noticed something horrifying. The dust particles he had noted earlier _were not moving._ Instinctively, he whipped around to look down at Conan, only to find the boy's expression wide eyed and unseeing. Conan wasn't with them at the moment.

The moment Conan had stepped into the empty room he had been plunged into darkness. _It smells like gunpowder and… blood?_ Despite the circumstances, Conan couldn't help but add on sarcastically. _Smells like my life._ However, for some odd reason, that sarcastic inner comment seemed to be the trigger for changing the spell that was upon him. Conan blinked, as he felt soft, cool, somethings brush across his face and arms. He looked down at his hands to catch what was raining down on him. _Clovers._ These meant nothing to him. _Clovers? Why?_ His confused thoughts seemed to trigger another vision, as now the raining clovers turned into trump cards. "Argh!" Conan shouted, falling back in surprise at the sudden violent rain of cards. He covered his face. _Trump cards?_ These meant something to him, but-

Conan blinked as his vision cleared and he was back in the empty room, looking up at both a concerned looking Kaito and Mogi. He was sitting down on the ground, but otherwise unscathed. No paper-cuts, no shamrocks on his sleeves, no gunpowder on his clothes, no physical evidence of what he had envisioned moments before.

"Tantei-kun" Kaito said, worriedly scurrying over to Conan, who had fallen over for some odd reason with a shout. The dust particles could wait. Literally. The teen then crouched down so he would be eye-level with the boy. The mini detective seemed to have come to, and was now blinking at him. "You're back."

"Huh?"

"You were somewhere else for a moment there, kiddo." Mogi provided, showing concern on his face as well. "Maybe you really should rest up a bit more."

"I…" Conan faltered, before he looked down at his hands as he felt something in them. He was getting sick of this. There were 5 trump cards in his hand. _Maybe there'll be blood on them._ Conan thought dryly. It would be a shared memory between all three of them from the Karasuma mansion again. (If Kaito was KID, that is.) However, he frowned as he looked at the cards more closely. These weren't the cards he was holding back then.

"Where did you get those cards?"

Conan blinked again as he locked eyes with Kaito, who was right in front of him. "Huh?" Conan then felt too… small. And Kaito looked too…old. Granted, Conan _was_ smaller than his actual self, but it was an acute moment of disorientation. Almost as if he wasn't himself. He looked down at the cards again.

Kaito looked down at the cards as well, feeling a moment of nostalgia as he saw which ones the boy was holding. _Ah, these look like the ones dad used that one time he taught me that trick…_ Kaito's train of thought came to a screeching halt at that thought, before he let out a sigh. _No… unlike that soccer ball and the luminol message, this is not a moment of time I've shared with Tantei-kun._

"I don't know-"

"What cards?" Mogi asked, before he sighed and kneaded his forehead. "You know what, never mind. I think Mouri had the right idea. I need a smoke."

"Mogi-san wait-" Conan sputtered, before the man interrupted him.

"Toki-san is in the living room right now." Mogi smiled at the surprised look of the two boys. "You haven't met her yet, so I assumed you were dying to speak to her."

Conan nodded dumbly. He wasn't sure if he should be glad to be surrounded by detectives, since everything seemed to go by quicker, or scared because they didn't miss a single detail.

"Conan-kun, let's go." Kaito said, holding his hand out to help Conan up. Unsurprisingly, the cards that had been in the boy's hand had disappeared. It was terrifying how quickly one could get used to supernatural occurrences, such as randomly appearing and disappearing objects. "Let's get you out of this room. It's not good for you. It's dusty." _And creepy._ Both Conan and Kaito added on in their heads for their own respective reasons.

After separating with Mogi, the two headed over to the living room. Kaito took this chance to repeat the question he had to Conan earlier, "You don't believe in magic, do you?"

"No." Conan responded without hesitation. "But something strange is happening here, and I can't explain it." He then looked over at the other teen. "Don't tell me you believe in it? The real stuff, I mean."

Kaito took a moment to think of an answer. He didn't _believe_ in it. He _knew_ it was real; unfortunately from not so peaceful first hand experience. Kaito didn't really like the idea of his little detective buddy getting knowledge of it being real though, lest he found it another fun dangerous topic to stick his nose into. However, this mansion case… was it inevitable? "Yes." He decided to say after some hesitation. Tantei-kun didn't have to trust his answer after all. "The real stuff."

Before Conan could answer, the two had approached the living room. There, opening the window to air out the room stood an old woman facing away from them.

"Toki-san?" Conan called out, trying out the name. Hopefully, she would provide more clues to this strange mansion case. Additionally, she may be able to shed light on the time related craziness that seemed to be happening to him since this morning.

The old lady turned around to face them, and for a moment, she seemed to freeze as she looked over both Kaito and Conan.

"Who are you?" Genuine confusion ghosted over the woman's face as she addressed… which one was she addressing? Deciding he didn't care, Conan ran over to introduce himself.

"I'm Conan Edogawa." Conan piped up, "Nice to meet you!"

"Oh, you're the Conan-kun that got hurt." Toki replied, cracking a hesitant smile and looking over at the boy. "Are you okay now?"

"Yes." Conan responded. _Good, she's not denying the vase breaking._ "But wow, Toki-san, did you fix the vase? It was already back where it was yesterday when Kaito-niichan and I went to look at it today."

"I did not fix the vase." Toki replied, leaning back from Conan. The little detective noted her strange fear in interest. "Why did you go back to look at it?"

Conan laughed his fake childish laugh. "I didn't go back to look for the vase! I thought it would be broken after all. I wanted to see if I had dropped something!"

"Did you find anything?"

"Nope." Conan replied, speaking quickly enough to make sure Kaito wouldn't butt in with any unneeded information. "It seemed all I dropped yesterday were my memories!"

For some odd reason, his joke about the amnesia made Toki freeze. "Who's memories?" she finally said softly, frowning.

Frowning at the odd question, Conan replied the only way he could think. "Mine."

"Who are you?"

This was getting nowhere. Was this lady going senile? Before Conan could respond again, Kaito finally joined the conversation. "He's Conan-kun. Who else?"

Toki seemed to come to as she heard Kaito join the conversation, before she turned her confused look at the teen as well. Was he imagining it? She looked… sad. "And who are you?"

Kaito paused at the strange expression, before introducing himself as well. He had seen her yesterday, but come to think of it he never did tell her his name. "I'm Kaito Kuroda. Nice to meet you."

For some odd reason, after hearing the name she backed away. "How many lives do you have?" she said cryptically, seemingly addressing both of the boys, before she hurriedly left the room.

"What… was that?" Conan said, before he looked over at Kaito, who was also giving him a similar look of confusion and alarm.

"Maybe she's a witch."

Conan snorted. "A confused and scared witch." He added on. "Maybe she messed up some spell and that's why everything's all weird."

"Tantei-kun." Kaito said, looking down at Conan with a rare look of sincere worry. "Don't be so quick to dismiss…magic. The real stuff."

"Huh?"

"By the way." Kaito went on, not addressing his equally cryptic statement. "Maybe we should ask her about that pearl that was in your hoodie?"

"Oh, this?" Conan asked, pulling out the baggie with the pearl out of his pocket. The last time he had touched it, he had gotten a powerful flashback. The intensity of them made the 'shared moments' phenomenon seem milder in comparison. Although ironically, the flashbacks were probably a more realistic thing than those randomly appearing moments. "Yea I guess so."

He stared at the dilapidated pearl. ' _How many lives do you have?'_

For some odd reason, the confused lady's frighteningly astute question seared through his mind as he looked at the figurative tear. _That's a good question._ Conan thought to himself. The pearl looked like two beads that had failed to become two. _Or couldn't figure out if it was two or the same?_

He hated to think this was magic, but maybe… just maybe this so called 'magic' could give him clues on how to nullify this spell that had been cast on all of them in the mansion.

Conan silently tipped the baggie over to let the pearl fall on his hand again.

' _Tears that stop time'? What is time to magic anyway?_


End file.
